The swans from Piatra-Neamț

The educational institution known today as the "Calistrat Hogaş" National College writes its history as a place of light from the year 1885, when it existed in Piatra Neamţ, as it would indirectly result from the last documents revealed, the "Culture", a private primary and secondary institute for girls. Social life in the second half of the 19th century is marked by a strong feminist movement, which did not remain indifferent to women's right to access education and culture. In German education, this tendency would occupy a privileged place. The initiative of Mrs. Ivanovici (sister of the lawyer Gh. Lazu, former sub-prefect and prefect of Neamţ) resulted in the establishment of the institute, which also had a boarding school and which operated in the former houses of Maria Albu - the current headquarters of the Territorial Agency of School Camps and Tourism. Since 1889, the activity has been led by teacher Elisa Udrischi, a graduate of the Conservatory in Dresden, assisted by Gabriela Bitrou, a highly cultured young woman with secondary education in Austria. The teaching staff who taught at this girls' institute were among the best trained professionally, especially pedagogically. In the lower secondary course, worked teachers Ion Negre (the director of the gymnasium and then of the "Petru Rareş" High School), Gr. Sinescu, V. Vîleanu, Gr. Istrati, Er. Zaharia, N. Juravschi, all with university studies in the country and abroad. The beginning of the 20th century is characterized by a visible animation of the scientific, cultural and social-political life, the deep changes being reflected in the life of education. In 1901, Ion Negre left for Bucharest (as a liberal deputy in the Romanian Parliament), being replaced by Er. Zaharia, and the school existed until 1910, when Elisa Udrischi was called to Iasi to run a music school. In these conditions, Eugenia Popovici, with a degree in letters, and Valentina Focsa, with a degree in mathematics, established, in 1910, a preparatory course for girls for the third grade of secondary school, authorized by the Ministry of Public Instruction and Cults, with results whose quality she was known and recognized. Thus, in 1911, with the support of the German parliamentarians and with the authorization of C.C. Arion – minister in the conservative government led by P.P. Carp, the private secondary school for girls with the state education program was established in Piatra Neamţ. Transformed, in 1924, into the Eugenia Popovici – Valentina Focsa Girls' High School, the school fulfilled its mission of ensuring equal opportunities in access to instruction and education, illustrating the progress of Romanian education, marked, a year earlier, by the nationalization of schools. If until this historical moment, the studious girls had taken their high school equivalency exams at the "Petru Rareş" High School, the right to education, existing and fulfilled in the old and prestigious school from the end of the 19th century, acquires its well-deserved status. Nurtured by the enlightened desire of the teachers and the young offspring to fulfill themselves through knowledge, the school that we call today the "Calistrat Hogaş" National College has been in existence since 1885 and was founded in 1910. From here, since then, its history springs ceaselessly and quenches the thirst for learning of the generations it has raised. Source and additional information: www.calistrathogas.ro

The Piatra-Neamţ Forestry Technical College, an educational institution with old traditions in the field of forestry, is among the few in the country, ensuring with professionals both the internal human resources required (represented by the National Forestry Authority - ROMSILVA, the Neamţ Forest Directorate and economic agents from the field of wood processing) as well as the European one. Graduates of the Technical College easily found a job in the European Union thanks to the fields of training related to the basic training: salmon farming, landscaping, utilization of non-wood forest products, hunting, carpenters, furniture designers.

"Petru Rareș" National College is a high school education institution in Piatra-Neamț, located on 4 Stefan cel Mare street, right in the heart of the city. It was and still is one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the city. In 1869, on November 27, the school was opened, with Ion Negre (the scientific part) and Calistrat Hogaș (the literary part) as teachers, the management being entrusted to the latter. The profile of this school being both classical (1869-1878) and real (1878-1897). The college building is a historical monument, registered in the list of historical monuments in Neamț County.

The amphora house is located on Ştefan cel Mare street, no 14, and was built at the end of the 19th century. This is a one-story brick construction. The facade is highlighted by a sequence of voids and fills, curved and countercurved lines, wide arches. The windows are decorated with sculptural motifs, reminiscent of ancient Greek vessels. The house is typical of eclectic architecture, with dominant neoclassical and baroque elements.

Located on Ștefan cel Mare str., at no. 44,  Lalu house hosts today the Children's Palace. The beautiful building was built by the contractor Carol Zane, according to the plans of the architect Roger H. Bolomey. The name of the house comes from Dimitrie Lalu, who remained in the locals minds as "one of the most famous figures of our city... a great merchant and industrialist, who for over 40 years was active in the economic field of Piatra-Neamț and Neamț County". Coming as a young man from Greece, he settled in Piatra-Neamț, trading in wood, through an association and then on his own. He was not endowed with "a superior culture" but "endowed with a lively intelligence and vocation for trade", becoming not long after one of the biggest merchants and industrialists in the county and in the country, as recorded in the publications and documents of the time. Text source: www.ziarpiatraneamt.ro

"In the vicinity of the Sports Hall is the house where Lady Elena lived her last years - the ideally good and modest woman who was his wife, Her Highness Elena, the companion of Cuza Vodă - as Nicolae Iorga characterized her in 1909, a month before the illness that took her life, after he had personally visited her in this house in Piatra-Neamț." describes the writer Victor Nămolaru in the book "Small tourist guide to Piatra-Neamț (1969)". The same author continued: "...in that black room, in which she could be seen at the bottom of an armchair, in a poor dress of eternal mourning, under a nun's cassock, covered with a simple woolen veil, a small figure finely carved in pale ivory - in that room there was a life that knew, read, learned, that united the entire memory of the past with the perfect consciousness of those today, it was a lonely and decent thought, it was a heart that beat for all that is noble and eyes in which the fountain of tears of those who keep alive the great pains, hidden from the world, which they do not look at, had not dried up." Elena Cuza (b. June 17, 1825, Iași – d. April 2, 1909, Piatra-Neamț), also known as Elena Doamna (Lady Elena), was the wife of ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza. She was born in Iași, in the Rosetti family and died in Piatra-Neamț, being buried in Solești, Vaslui.

Victor Brauner (1903–1966) was born in Piatra-Neamț and distinguished himself, in the 1920s, as an emblematic figure of the Bucharest avant-garde. In 1933, Brauner joined the surrealist movement initiated by André Breton and in 1938 he permanently moved to Paris. Also then, the artist accidentally loses an eye and, because he had painted himself many years before in a self-portrait with an enucleated eye, he becomes the "visionary painter" of the Surrealist movement, capable of premonitions. Author: Lucian Tudorache Year: 2003 Material: artificial stone Location: the courtyard of the Victor Brauner Art High School, building C Photo source: www.ziarpiatraneamt.ro

On Tuesday, January 14, 2014, on the eve of the National Day of Culture, the bust of Mihai Eminescu was inaugurated in front of the County Library "G.T. Kirileanu" from Piatra Neamț. Author: Lucian Tudorache Year: 2014 Material: bronze Location: Library "G.T. Kirileanu" Photo & text source: www.ziarpiatraneamt.ro

The little mermaid from Piatra-Neamţ is a copy of the famous statue in Copenhagen, made by the sculptor Silviu Bejan, who immigrated to Canada in the meantime. The statue was specially prepared for the visit to Romania of Queen Margareta II of Denmark, who arrived in the municipality of Piatra-Neamț on May 18, 2000. It was initially placed at the Elena Doamna Placement Center, a place that her highness visited together with Prince Consort Henrik. The statue remained at the Placement Center until after May 25, then was moved to the downtown park.   Author: Silviu Bejan Year: 2000 Material: bronze Location: str. 22 Decembrie, no. 1, Piatra Neamţ, on the green space in front of School no. 3